World Cup champion faces barrage of homophobia for birthday pic of his son in a tiara
World Cup champion soccer player Pedro Rodriguez posted a lovely birthday picture of his son, drawing ridiculous criticism as well as praise. The post World Cup champion faces barrage of homophobia for birthday pic of his son in a tiara appeared first on Outsports.
Mark
World Cup champion and longtime professional soccer player Pedro Rodriguez is finding out just how much homophobia there is from anonymous cowards on social media.
Rodriguez, who was part of the Spain team that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup, last month posted a pic of a boy — reportedly his son — and his wife celebrating the child’s birthday. The boy was seated in front of a Lilo & Stitch birthday cake wearing a tiara and what looks like a dress.
“Congratulations MARC,” Rodriguez wrote on Instagram. “One more year at the best water park in the world, many thanks to @siampark for letting us enjoy this wonderful day.”
Siam Park is a waterpark on Tenerife, a Spanish island off the coast of Morocco.
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Responses to the post came from all sides. Some people praised Rodriguez as a good father for allowing the boy to express himself how he chooses, regardless of traditional gender norms.
Other people — mostly anonymous behind a keyboard — took the opportunity to spew homophobia and other cruel messages directed at him and the gay community.
“You’re raising him badly,” said one. “What kind of boy is he?” Asked another. And then: “Shame.”
As Outsports has reported many times, anti-gay messages on social media are not hard to find, particularly in and around sports. These mostly anonymous screeds have been blamed in part as the reason there are not more publicly out gay professional athletes.
The responses to his Instagram post became at times so bad that Rodriguez shut off all comments to the post.
Rodriguez followed up the post just recently with more photos celebrating the 33rd birthday of his wife.
Pedro Rodriguez currently plays professional football in Italy for Lazio. He played for the national team of Spain from 2010 to 2017, part of the group that won the 2010 FIFA World Cup.
He’s previously played professional soccer for both Barcelona FC and Chelsea FC.
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The post World Cup champion faces barrage of homophobia for birthday pic of his son in a tiara appeared first on Outsports.
